“There is no worse mis­take in pub­lic lead­er­ship than to hold out false hopes soon to be swept away…peo­ple can face per­il or mis­for­tune with for­ti­tude and buoy­an­cy, but they bit­ter­ly resent being deceived or find­ing that those respon­si­ble for their affairs are them­selves dwelling in a fool’s par­adise.” —Win­ston S. Churchill, 1950

Lieu­tenant-Gen­er­al Arthur Ernest Per­ci­val, (right), led by a Japan­ese offi­cer, walks under a droop­ing Union Flag to nego­ti­ate the sur­ren­der of Sin­ga­pore, on 15 Feb­ru­ary 1942.…